Occupational Safety and Health6th Edition

Lecture Notes

By: Dr. David Goetsch

Chapter Five

Safety, Health, and Competitionin the Global Marketplace

Occupational Safety and Health for Technologists, Engineers, and Managers, 6/th ed. Goetsch

© 2008 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights

Reserved.

Competitiveness Defined

Competitiveness is the ability to succeed and

prosper in the local, regional, national, and

global marketplace. The most competitive

companies are those that consistently outperform

their competitors in the key areas of:Quality

Productivity

Response time

Service

Cost

Image

Occupational Safety and Health for Technologists, Engineers, and Managers, 6/th ed. Goetsch

© 2008 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights

Reserved.

Productivity Defined

Productivity is a measure of output in

goods and services compared to input of

resources needed to produce or deliver

them. Part of productivity is the

concept of value added, which is measured

as the difference between what it costs a

company to produce a product and the

competitive market price of that product.

Occupational Safety and Health for Technologists, Engineers, and Managers, 6/th ed. Goetsch

© 2008 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights

Reserved.

Quality Defined

Quality is a measure of the extent to

which a product meets or exceeds

customer expectations. It goes hand-

in-hand with productivity. Quality

without productivity results in costs

that are too high to be competitive.

Productivity without quality results

in an unacceptable product.

Occupational Safety and Health for Technologists, Engineers, and Managers, 6/th ed. Goetsch

© 2008 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights

Reserved.

Safety and Health Contributions to Competitiveness

Safety and health contribute to

competitiveness in the following

ways:

•By helping companies attract and keep the

best people

•By allowing employees to focus on peak

performance without being distracted by

concerns for their safety and health

•By freeing money that can be reinvested

in technology updates

•By protecting the corporate image.

Occupational Safety and Health for Technologists, Engineers, and Managers, 6/th ed. Goetsch

© 2008 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights

Reserved.

Workplace Accident Statistics

The impetus for passing the Occupational

Safety and Health Act, or OSH Act, was that

workplace accidents were causing an average

of 14,000 deaths every year in the United

States. Each year, 2.5 million workers were

disabled in workplace accidents, and

approximately 300,000 new cases of

occupational diseases were reported annually.